Friday, May 11, 2012

Hradecka upsets Stosur in Madrid

Lucie Hradecka is known for her big serve. Today, in the Madrid Open quarterfinals, she used it to great advantage to upset 5th seed Sam Stosur 7-6, 7-6. Hradecka, who hit 19 aces (she generally hits 10 or more), was successful with both her first and second serves. Hradecka had already taken out Madrid defending champion Petra Kvitova. In the semifinals, Hradecka will play Serena Williams, who easily defeated Maria Sharapova in straight sets.

In the other semifinal, top seed Victoria Azarenka will once again play Agnieszka Radwanska. Azarenka defeated Li Na 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. Radwanska fought off a spirited challenge from qualifier Varvara Lepchenko, beating her 6-4, 6-4. There were eight breaks of serve in that match.

A Serena-Vika final is definitely something to look forward, what a match it could be! Their matches were already great most of times, now with Azarenka at the top, i can only expect a high quality final.

About the surface, i can't made my mind to either a nice change or a terrible unimprovement. Players complain about slippery but i have yet to know of some serious injurie, i could even say there are fewer injuries than other tournaments (Stuttgart). What are your thoughts in this, Diane?

It seems to me, big names (clearly Novak and Rafa, but not just them) are just somewhat sore losers, blaming the surface not for slippery but for faster, wich doesn't suits their game. As for the surface being only for advertising purposes, i have no problem with it, it looks cool and advertisement is already everywhere in both tours.

Serena and Federer both seem to have adapted to the surface, just getting on with their games, where as Djokovic and Nadal have come out of the event looking like whinge puppies. But it's great to see some different names in the men's sfs. And hopefully Serena & Vika will meet on Sunday in what should be a great match.

I STILL Stand With Maria

About the blog author

Diane Elayne Dees is a writer, a semi-retired psychotherapist in private practice, and a life-long fan of women's professional tennis.

For several years, Diane published the progressive blog, The Dees Diversion, and she also contributed regularly to the Mother Jones MoJo Blog. Diane has published political essays, short fiction and creative nonfiction. For the past several years, she has concentrated on writing poetry (Diane has written several tennis-themed poems).